This year’s Design Forum, "The Renaissance of Design", with host sponsor Johnson Controls and supporting sponsors Microsoft and Autodesk, brought a breath of much-needed fresh air to an automotive industry weighed down with the burden of financial woes. 
After a year’s hiatus, the event re-launched at College for Creative Studies' A. Alfred Taubman Center for Design Education. A fabulous 144 million dollar renovation of a former GM building in mid-town Detroit, it will soon house creative studies programs for students from sixth grade through graduate school. As part of the developing creative corridor in the city it proved a welcoming setting for over 350 attendees.
The day launched with David Muyres' presentation (his title identifies him as "Agent of Transportation Change") calling for a new approach to developing complete mobility solutions. 
He reminded the audience that we went into the last century with people asking, "Why do we need a faster horse?" and shouldn’t enter this century asking, "How do we make a faster car?" He shifted the discussion to looking at transportation as a way to meet the basic need of people moving themselves and their goods from Point A to Point B. Based on this focus, he challenged the design community to develop an integrated mobility systems approach that would create a new plan for transportation in the United States. This plan would respond to consumer demand for greater connectivity, energy savings, and a variety of vehicle types based on use, including "car as appliance"; and that would incorporate many modes of transportation -- from high-speed rail, to shared vehicle ownership models, to pod cars to bicycles for rental throughout urban areas. 
He complimented the members of the design community for applying their ability to balance all of the concerns of business, safety, style and technology and for bringing the automotive industry to a mature state. But he challenged them to focus these same abilities toward mobilizing an American transportation revolution. One example he posited would be for the newly reorganized GM to move from being the General Motors Corporation to the General Mobility Corporation.
A set of panelists was up next. These included:
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John Wendl, Content Director at Turn 10 Studios, who introduced the incredibly cool video game application of the Forza Motorsport franchise. With partner Microsoft they’ve taken CG, User Generated Content (UGC), and social media, using X-Box live, to a whole new level.
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ICON Aircraft’s COO, Steen Strand, presented its ICON A5 that leveraged "world-class design to make recreational flying more appealing and accessible."
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Bruce Campbell, VP of design for Nissan Design America, who led the design efforts for the new Nissan 370Z, Maxima and Rogue, said that the automotive industry has become caught in sameness and needed to press toward a renaissance in design. "With globalization we're simply copying. The economic fears are driving this sameness. We need to design not just for the business concerns, but we need to design for people." In this regard he said "we need to create regional looks, take advantage of the fact that electric is here." He concluded with this call to action: "Be bold, step out. Hit the reset button every day. Reset design and lead the way with creative."
Key-note speaker Ralph Gilles, head of Chrysler design and CEO of the Dodge Brand built on this momentum and called on the audience to "campaign the change" in design. He gave a very frank, funny and engaging presentation -- the kind of presentation that made you feel, "Yeah, there’s a community here made up of some very smart, hip, approachable people. Together we’re going to create something cool, now that we’re getting through all of this turbulence." 
He framed his comments with a number of introductory quotes, including this one from Freeman Thomas, now at Ford as Director, Strategic Design for North America: "Good design begins with honesty, asks tough questions, and comes from collaboration and trusting intuition."
The current temptation, he said, "is for everyone to aim for the same center" of the target. It’s creating a lot of me-too looks. While vehicles do arrange themselves within specific "visual imprints," the designer’s job now is both to look for the soul in these icons and also to create the next icon. "Branded design is everything. You still need to create the soul and you create the soul by design."
He pointed out some 10 to 12 silhouette prints including two new icons -- the Prius, establishing the line for the energy efficient aerodynamic vehicle; and the Smart car for the urban small car. He commented that his team was keeping a keen focus on the Millenials, a group that prides themselves on diversity but who are all looking for connectivity and an active interface. In this regard he said going forward, "technology will be the trump card."
In signing off, he thanked his alma mater, CCS, saying that "education is working" and encouraged the new designers to, "be respectful, but speak your mind. You have to campaign the change."
The day ended with Richard Chung, Vice President Design, Asia Pacific, Johnson Controls Automotive Experience, who brought a further global perspective. He shared that in the last 24 years since Johnson Controls entered and has dedicated itself to, the automotive business, it has grown to be a leading global supplier, with eight design studios to serve its customers. He pointed out that in China, his area of focus, there was no real culture built around the automobile and that this was a historic moment to influence this exploding market of first-time buyers. As a recent example of Johnson Controls innovation, he highlighted the recent re3 global design demonstrator as breaking away from the expected and helping to shape what is next. MOVE supported Johnson Controls by helping develop the marketing creative for the re3 and the video presentation promoting it at Design Forum.
You can catch more on this event by going to autoweek.com or downloading their iPhone app at the iTunes store.
From all of us at MOVE, hats off to all who threw this party and who attended. You set a great tone for what surely will be a better year than the last. So as you look toward the year ahead, in your area of expertise, challenge yourself. Be part of the renaissance—keep creating.